Akani Alaka
Given her support for government’s regulation of social media few days before, many Nigerians were obviously not sympathetic to Aisha, the wife of the Nigerian President over her latest complaint, indicating the hijack of her husband’s government by members of a ‘cabal’ in the Presidency last week.
Also, some had criticised the First Lady for her penchant to go public with issues, concerning her family, which she could have discussed and resolved with her husband without raising dust in the public.
Yet, many who spoke to this newspaper last week said while the press statement by the First Lady indicated her ongoing feud with Mamman Daura, the nephew of her husband, which has been since Buhari’s first time, it also provided insight into the dysfunction in the decision making process of the administration.
Rather than the required all-hands-on-the-deck, the emerging scenario in the Nigerian Presidency is that powerplay by unelected members of kitchen cabinet, who successfully imposed their imprimaturs on the character, appointments and policies of government during the first term of the Buhari administration has continued to thrive, even in Buhari’s second tenure.
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Daura, a nephew of President Buhari and former Managing Director of New Nigerian newspaper, who recently celebrated his 80th birthday in London at a lavish occasion attended by former governor Ibikunle Amosu and other top government officials, is believed to be the head of the kitchen cabinet, popularly called the cabal. Daura moved into the presidential villa, following the election of Buhari as president and only left towards the expiration of his uncle’s first term. There is also Abba Kyari, the president’s Chief of Staff and Lawal Daura, who was sacked by the then Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, as the Director General of Department of State Services, DSS in 2018.
The former DSS boss, who was sacked, following the invasion of the National Assembly by operatives of the secret police, according to sources, is still exercising strong powers behind the scene. Working alongside others, members of the cabal have been accused of influencing appointments of their friends and cronies in government, exploiting the inadequacies of the president, who appointed them.
Aisha: The Battle This Time
Aisha’s last week’s statement again gave hints that the leash on the president by the cabal is still strong. The First Lady had accused members of the cabal of giving directives to presidential aides without taking directive from her husband.
She specifically accused presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu, of making himself available for the use of the cabal, “as a willing tool and executioner of their antics, from the corridors of power even to the level of interfering with the family affairs of the president.”
According to her, rather than his assigned task of managing the image of the president and publicising all the good works he is executing in the country, Aisha claimed that the presidential spokesperson has shifted his loyalty to “others who have no stake in the contract that the president signed with Nigerians on May 29, 2015, and 2019.”
In the statement entitled, “Garba Shehu Has Gone Beyond His Boundaries”, the First Lady traced her grouse about the presidential spokesperson to the beginning of the administration in 2015, when the Presidency issued a statement that the Buhari administration, unlike others before it, would not operate the office of First Lady. She said the directive to issue the statement was given by Mamman Daura to Shehu.
Of course, the immediate reason for the First Lady’s statement were the controversies, concerning the wild rumours that her husband was set to get married to one of his ministers, Hajiya Sadia Farouk, some weeks ago. Though the First Lady did not specifically mention the ’marriage’ in her statement, she, however, accused Garba of failing to dissipate the rumours about the purported wedding when it was rife. Aisha was outside the country and had been away for over two months when the rumour of her husband’s ’wedding’ went viral in the social media.
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Some days to the ‘wedding’, a video of a woman whose face was not shown, complaining about being locked out of a room and demanding that some people should pack their belongings in the Villa had gone viral. The rumour mill had been agog that the woman in the video was Aisha, who was locked out of her room in the villa upon her return to the country by her husband because of the new ’marriage’.
However, the ’marriage’ eventually turned out a hoax. The First Lady returned to the country about two days after the ‘marriage’ was supposed to have taken place and she was asked to clarify speculations concerning the video by a television crew of Nigeria Television Authority at the airport. She confirmed that she was the one in the video, which, according to her, was circulated by Fatima, Mamman Daura’s daughter.
She further explained the circumstances behind the video in an interview with the Hausa service of BBC. “I was the one in that video and this person you see standing at my back are my security personnel. It was Fatima, the daughter of Mamman Daura that shot the video in front of my security and everybody there. She was actually recording the whole thing right in front of me and was laughing and mocking me,” Aisha said.
“They did that because my husband sacked them from the house. He told them to get all their belongings and leave the house for my son (Yusuf) to occupy. I left them and wanted to get to one of the rooms but they prevented me from getting through, I left them and took another way yet I met the store locked,” she added.
Fatima also agreed that she recorded and circulated the video, as evidence of the aggressive nature of the First Lady in an interview with a foreign radio station: “When she (Aisha) came, the door was locked and shepicked a metal chair and broke the door.
” I have sent the picture to you. My sister that went out was almost hit by the chair. She threw the chair which broke through the door and almost hit my sister,” said Fatima. “I was so shocked and afraid of getting there because she was shouting and raining abusive words and saying we should move out of that apartment. That she has never seen this kind of thing before.
“I then went back and picked my phone because if one is to say that she acted that way, no one would believe it without proof. She has already been saying a lot of things, depicting that she is being suppressed,” she added.
Among the sins for the First Lady’s railing against Garba in the statement she released last week was over alleged failure to clear the air on the video when it circulated: “Garba Shehu, as Villa Spokesperson, knew the truth and had the responsibility to set the records straight, but because his allegiance is somewhere else and his loyalty misplaced, he deliberately refused to clear the air and speak for the president, who appointed him in the first place. Consequently, his action has shown a complete breakdown of trust between the First Family and him.”
She added that, “Mr. Shehu was privy and part of the plan and its execution and he was shocked when he realised that I had publicised my return to Nigeria on October 12, 2019, and cleared the air on the many rumours that took over social media, a job he was supposed to do but kept mute to cause more confusion and instability for his principal and his family.”
The First Lady also accused the presidential aide of attempting to use his influence to sack members of NTA crew attached to her office, who conducted the interview at the airport as well as waging war on the First Family through pseudo accounts to write and defame her and her children.
“Based on Garba Shehu’s misguided sense of loyalty and inability to stay true and loyal to one person or group, it has become apparent that all trust has broken down between him and my family due to the many embarrassments he has caused the Presidency and the first family. We all have families to consider in our actions and, therefore, it is in the best interest of all concerned for Garba Shehu to take the advice of the authority, given to him sometimes in the first week of November 2019,” Mrs. Buhari concluded in the statement.
She did not elaborate on the ‘advice by the authority to Garba’ in her statement. But many have interpreted her claim that ‘trust has broken down between the presidential spokesperson and the first family’ as a call on Garba to resign his appointment.
The presidential aide has refused to respond to the claims by the wife of her boss, as at the time of writing this story last week. But indications are that the media aide is unlikely to take the advice of Mrs. Buhari, especially when his boss has not asked him to throw in the towel.
An Enduring Battle Against The Cabal
Aisha’s battles with the cabal began in 2016 when she accused them of influencing appointments made into the government of her husband, to the detriment of true members of the All Progressives Congress, APC. “The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either despite being his wife for 27 years. Some people are sitting down at their homes, folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or ministerial position,” she said in an interview with a foreign radio station. The First Lady had then threatened not to support the second term ambition of her husband if the situation continues.
But the president had responded that his wife was not a member of APC and belonged to the ‘other room’ when he was confronted with the accusation by during an official visit to Germany.
She again raised the allegation again that the Buhari Presidency is under a firm grip of cabal at an event in the presidential villa before the last general election. She had at the event asked Nigerians to take on the two or three people, dominating her husband’s government: “If 15.4 million people can bring in a government and only for the government to be dominated by two people or three people, where are the men of Nigeria? Where are the Nigerian men? What are you doing? Instead of them to come together and fight them, they keep visiting them one after the other licking their shoes (I’m sorry to use those words).”
The Voice of America had in an interview conducted before the last general election asked the President to react to allegations by his wife that a cabal had hijacked his presidency.
“That’s her business. It shows I am a real democrat,” the president responded. “What they are saying is different from what is happening. They (those making the accusations) should come out and say those things they feel were stage-managed by the cabal, which I was forced to do. They should mention just one thing.”
Failed Move Against The Cabal
But members of APC had also immediately after the election complained about the overwhelming influence of the cabal in the affairs of the Presidency. For example, a group, which tagged itself the Concerned National Stakeholders of APC, had asked the president not to involve Mamman Daura, Ismaila Funtua and Abba Kyari whom they described, as ‘leaders of the cabal’ in the second term of his administration.
While addressing journalists some days after Buhari was declared the winner of the 2019 presidential election, the group, led by its National convener, Dr. Symeon Chilagorom, declared that the president should shorn himself of any serious external influence in his second term.
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“Our demand is a simple one; the people of this country elected Muhammadu Buhari as their president, not Mamman Daura, not Ismaila Funtua, and definitely not Abba Kyari. Only President Buhari has our mandate to govern over the affairs of this nation, in light of that, we are simply asking that President Buhari should take back control of his government and begin to walk his talk during the campaign by delivering on the promises made.”
But to the shock of the party members and other lobbyists, Buhari reappointed Abba Kyari, as his Chief of Staff. Buhari, according to a report was actually shocked by the protests against Kyari and his nephew. It was also learnt that Daura, who nominated Kyari into the cabinet in the first place, ensured his retention by the president.
The president had also during the swearing-in of the ministers empowered the cabal when he asked the ministers to submit official communications or book appointment to see him through the Chief of Staff. Following the controversies, which characterised the directive, some analysts had argued that the presidential instruction to the ministers on the line of communication was in line with practice in other countries, practising the presidential system of government.
But emerging indication is that just like it happened during Buhari’s first term, the cabal is using Kyari’s foothold to influence appointments made by the government, a situation, which has placed him at the centre of the ongoing power struggle within the government.
Power Grab in Buhari’s Presidency
For instance, Kyari had sent tongues wagging when a letter he personally signed, querying Babatunde Fowler, who was denied a second term, as the chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS, last week. In the letter, which was leaked to the press, dated August 8, 2019, the Chief of Staff to President had queried the failure of FIRS to meet projected tax collection in the four years Fowler was in the saddle. He had asked Fowler to respond to the query within a few days. Many had queried the power of the Chief of Staff to personally issue such a query, especially when he did not indicate that he was writing on behalf of the president and when the Minister of Finance, the supervisory ministry for the FIRS is in place.
But again, Garba Shehu had defended Kyari’s query to Fowler, arguing that the former FIRS chairman was not under any investigation. He wrote on his verified Twitter account that the “letter from the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, on which the purported rumour of an investigation is based, merely raises concerns over the negative run of the tax revenue collection in recent times.”
Fowler had put up what he and many would consider a robust response to the query. But it was clear to many that his fate had already been sealed by the cabal, that was determined that he would not get a second term.
The query, it was learnt, was part of the process of convincing the president on why Fowler, a former Lagos chief taxman and a classmate of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, should be allowed to go at the expiration of his second term.
Indeed, some have argued that the replacement of Fowler by Aso Rock was also part of the moves by the cabal to reduce the power and influence of Osinbajo in Aso Rock presidential villa. The replacement of the FIRS chairman was on the heels of attempt to sack 35 aides attached to the Office of the Vice President, another scheme believed to be aimed at cutting Osinbajo, who members of the cabal feel was getting too popular to size. This was after the president travelled outside the country on 28 October. The president had refused to transfer power to Osinbajo, contrary to his practice in the past. The speculation was that the president was advised by members of his kitchen cabinet against transferring powers to his deputy to avoid the situation in which the Vice President sacked the DG of DSS, when he was away the last time.
However, Kyari had also attempted to sack the aides, taking advantage of the absence of Buhari from the country. Most of the affected aides were attached to the Special Intervention Programmes, SIPs, which includes Trader Moni, N-Power, among others being supervised by the vice president’s office. However, the SIPS were transferred to the newly created Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development with the understanding that the aides attached to Osinbajo would be deployed to the new ministry to continue their work.
Garba Shehu had actually confirmed that the aides were sacked “to streamline decision-making, cut down multiple authorities and reduce the cost of administration,” in reaction to controversies and speculations over the issue.
He added that Office of the Vice President has, in compliance with the directive of the president, equally been shed of a number of such appointees. This was in spite of the fact that the spokesperson to the vice president, Laolu Akande, had earlier denied claims of the sack of the aides.
However, on his return to the country, the president had explained that the 35 aides were not sacked, but redeployed to a new ministry. Speaking to reporters at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, the president said, “They said 35 people were sacked in the vice president’s office but we just created a ministry and we reorganised but people are giving it an ethnic and political dimension. It is unfortunate,” the President said.
This newspaper, however, gathered that the fate of the aides is still hanging in the balance as at last week.
Yet, With the growing poverty, insecurity, growing unemployment and most other socio-economic indices, relating to the country on the negative side, the Buhari administration has its work for its final four-year cut out for it and could avoid unnecessary power struggle.
“To alleviate the ongoing pains and sufferings of majority of the country’s nearly 200 million people, the Buhari government should set its urgent priorities for second term restoration of safety and security across the country, boosting economic activities to ensure creation of more jobs and intensification of its fight against corruption among others. This is a task, which requires all hands on the plough, not the ongoing power struggle, which is tantamount to fiddling while Rome burns,” Ade Olaleke, an activist, told this newspaper last week.
The Peoples Democratic Party last Tuesday said the tussle in Presidential Villa underlined managerial ineptitude and leadership failures of the Buhari Presidency.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement also said the spat further exposed the alleged Buhari Presidency’s poor management of issues.
Ologobondiyan said, “The feud further uncovers the impunity, disorderliness and vanity that pervade the Buhari Presidency and how the once serious and productive seat of power has been turned into a house of comedy and an overcrowded quarter for illegal occupants.
“Nigerians can now see why it has become difficult for our nation to witness any stability or progress under the Buhari Presidency and why the Buhari-led Federal Government has been bedeviled by confusion, infighting, policy flip-flops, statutory violations, promotion of violence, ingrained corruption, and administrative indolence while millions of Nigerians wallow in poverty and neglect.
“Nigerians and the world can equally see why no one expects the Buhari Presidency to articulate any progressive idea or proffer and implement any solution to the myriad of economic and security problems it caused our nation; they can now see why there is no hope in sight and why compatriots are daily agitating for a new order.”
The PDP spokesman, however, called on NASS to investigate the alleged abuse of office by President Buhari and should apply appropriate sanctions.
Ologbondiyan said, “Furthermore, the PDP urges the National Assembly to investigate the alleged abuse of office by President Buhari, following the revelation that he assigned official facilities in the Presidential Villa to unauthorised persons that have no official roles in governance, and apply appropriate sanctions.
“The PDP also urged the National Assembly to sanitise the Presidential Villa by probing allegations of illegal allotment of offices and apartments to unauthorised persons, including scammers and corruption fronts in Aso Rock.
“The party, however, urges Nigerians to remain calm, as such provocative and disgraceful developments will soon come to an end with the retrieval of our stolen mandate at the Supreme Court.”
